Cloud based computing has made it possible to duplicate aspects of user interfaces across devices. When users have multiple computing devices associated with a same online identity, application, service, platform, etc., it is often desirable to synchronize information between those devices to provide consistent or duplicate state for affiliated devices. In particular it may be desirable for aspects of a user interactive user interface to be consistent among a user's devices. This may be an issue because most user interfaces are alterable and customizable, either by a user or otherwise. A user may add a user interface element, move an element, change a behavior or appearance trait of the user interface, and so forth. For consistency, such changes may be propagated from the device where they originated to other devices with instances of the user interface.
For example, assume that a user has two computing devices. Each device has installed thereon an instance of an application program with a user interface. In addition, assume that there is a synchronization mechanism in place for changes to the user interface on either device to be propagated to the other device. Such a mechanism might be a peer-to-peer system or a network based service (e.g., a cloud service) that maintains state of the user interface (e.g., which elements are in the user interface, the layout of those elements, etc.). By whatever mechanism, changes to the user interface on one device are duplicated to the other device.
However, as uniquely observed by the inventors, user interface updates can be problematic. As observed by the inventors, because a user interface is by nature interactive, an update received while a user interface is likely to disrupt the user's activities directed to the user interface. The user may be in the midst of directing input to the user interface to perform an activity. That activity might be disrupted if an update to the in-use user interface is suddenly applied. For instance, if the user is dragging a graphic such as an application icon and an update causes the user interface to disrupt that dragging, the icon may end up being manipulated in a way not intended by the user.
Techniques related to minimizing such user disruptions are described below.